Live Video: Drangar

Drangar: their name translates roughly in English to “pillars of rock”, and it’s about as apt a description you’ll find for this Icelandic group, whose members — Mugison, Jónas Sigurðsson and Ómar Guðjónsson — are each highly respected musicians with their own projects. Thanks to the chance occurrence of a snowstorm (okay, not that much of a chance in Iceland) and a broken camper van, a meet-up between friends in the country’s Westfjords turned into a fruitful and mutual collaboration, resulting in a self-titled debut, which we described before as a range between “dreamy melodicism and booty-shaking funk“. Yet we were hardly prepared when we met up with Drangar during Iceland Airwaves last fall at Sigur Rós’ Sundlaugin (or “Swimming Pool”) studio for their electrifying eight-song set (one take and no breaks!). Watch this exclusive session now: